About Deb Brown & Becky McCray

Hi, I’m Deb Brown.

And I’m Becky McCray.

We believe small towns can be saved — including yours.

Small towns thrive when they set themselves apart. We’ve joined forces to show you practical steps to help you shape a brighter future for your small town.

Change Agents from the Old Way to the New Way

In the old way, you’ve got:

A formal structure

Someone must be in control

Just a few old guys

You’ve got to make decisions

Meetings, meetings, meetings.

And they are often held in back rooms and closed to most people.

Each thing you do has to be big.

Very little action, mostly talk talk talk.

Failure is bad.

Most of us know about the old way. In fact, a lot of our towns are still living under the old way structure. We work in organizations that require we have a board, or someone in charge. There are schedules to follow, and meetings to attend. At each one of those meetings, decisions are made and ideas are narrowed down to the one good one. We don’t talk about failure. The projects we do are of such a large scale, that failure is not an option. And if it does fail, you can bet we find someone to blame (and it’s not us).

The new way is the future and the future is now. In this way, you’ve got:

Informal gatherings

Chaos is good, it brings lots of ideas with it.

There are many people involved.

We test out ideas, build them and learn from the ones that don’t work.

We are connected to each other, and keep building new connections.

There are many small steps and lots of action.

It’s a challenge to convert to the new way. There’s a lot of us somewhere in the middle. Doing things, the old way, and trying out a few things in the new way.

Our goal at SaveYour.Town is to help you effectively transition to the new way.

We will be your Change Agents. You’ll hear lots of stories of small towns doing things the new way. It’s going to feel weird and strange, and yet somehow right. You’ll slip back into the old way once and awhile (I know I did). You’ll find out people you thought were in the future track are really a part of the committee of negativity. You’ll find people in your crowd who you never expected to be there.

John F. Kennedy said it well: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

About Deb

Deb Brown shares stories and advice on social media, working and living in a small town and creating the kind of community you want to live in. You might recognize her online as @debworks or as the former director of the Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce. She grew up in a town of 141 people, Geneva, Iowa. She loves to tell stories and share real world examples of how people are changing their small town into the kind of place the community wants to live, work and play in.

About Becky

Becky McCray believes small towns have a future. She watches the global trends in the economy, technology and society, then she delivers practical steps rural people can implement right now to shape the future of their town. Her advice is based on her real world experience as a retail store owner and cattle rancher. She makes her home in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a town of 30 people. She doesn’t just talk about rural issues; she lives them.